by Lewis Loflin
Pantheism’s just atheism with a spiritual mask—no kin to Deism. It claims science but poisons it with pagan mush and feel-good mysticism, ditching reason for emotion. It’s a fundamentalist cult now, threatening humanity with its eco-nonsense and anti-human slant. Let’s rip it apart and see why it’s nothing like Deism’s rational core.
A pantheist named Atresica (atresica@mad.scientist.com, May 21, 2002) whined: “Pantheism isn’t just nature as god—it’s the universe as god… not New Age… based on reason.” Rational? Bull. Worshipping rocks, gas, and a lifeless void isn’t reason—it’s feelings. Atresica’s “proof”? Chat boards, not history or dictionaries. Typical of “Deism” sites—hijacking the label to bash theism, ignoring its roots (see Deist Creed).
Religioustolerance.org (New Age Religion) pegs pantheism: “All is God; God is all… divinity in us, no sacred texts, God’s within and everywhere.” Funk & Wagnalls agrees: monism where “the universe as a whole is God… worship of all as gods.” That’s not Deism—God’s transcendent, not the cosmos (see English Deism).
John Punshon’s Portrait in Grey nails Deism: “God transcends the cosmos… a closed system He lets run” (p. 160)—reason and science uncover truth, not mysticism. Pantheism? “God and universe are one… wholly immanent” (p. 161)—spirit’s everywhere, leading to Universalism and silent worship claptrap. Deism’s light is reason; pantheism’s is “God’s operation on the soul”—mush Deism rejects.
Deism’s five tenets (see Deism): one God, reverence, morality, repentance, afterlife justice. God’s not meddling, but He’s not the universe either. Pantheism’s the opposite—divinity’s in dirt, no transcendence, no judge. Stoics birthed it, sure (Leo Rosten, Religions of America, p. 259), but Deism ditches their god-universe mashup.
Gary Suttle of the Pantheist Association for Nature gushes: “The Universe is ultimate reality… Nature’s sacred… Taoists, Buddhists, Unitarians, atheists are pantheists.” Then: “Scientific Pantheism skips mythical deities… the Universe is divine in our awe, not objectively.” Mystery or mysticism? New Age bunk. Since Earth Day 1970, eco-fever and pantheism bloom together—often with socialism’s stench.
The Catholic Encyclopedia cuts deeper: pantheism’s “God and world as one” (John Toland, 1705). Strict version? Atheism—Brahminism, Stoicism, Gnosticism muddled it. Naturalistic pantheism says the universe self-spawned or always was—evolution explains all, no spirits, no afterlife. That’s atheism with lipstick.
Pantheism apes atheism’s critiques of religion but adds “profound emotional responses” to nature—feel-good atheism dodging the “atheist” tag. It’s secular religion, claiming science while mysticizing it. Call it Monism, Cosmism, or Taoism—it’s still atheism with a hug. Why graft it onto Deism? To snag Jefferson and Paine’s cred without the baggage (see Jefferson).
Michael Crichton nails it: “Environmentalism’s a religion for urban atheists… a remapping of Judeo-Christian myths.” Good (eco-saints) vs. evil (consumers), chasing a socialist utopia. Pantheists hijack science for this fantasy, ignoring facts—nature’s brutal, not divine.
Panentheism—“God’s in everything but beyond”—is gibberish, not reason (see Panendeism). Cosmotheism? H.G. Wells’ “world brain” and William Luther Pierce’s Nazi eugenics twist—God as man’s creation via social engineering. Both reek of pantheism’s mystic rot, not Deism’s clarity.
Thales (640 BC, Miletus) kicked off science—nature’s got laws, not gods’ whims. Heraclitus (Ephesus) added Logos—rational order—then veered pantheist: “motive force within nature.” Plato, Stoics, and Philo spun this into Judaism’s “Wisdom,” birthing Christianity’s “Word” (John 1:1-3). Church Fathers—ex-pantheists—mixed it with mysticism, spawning the Trinity and Holy Spirit nonsense. Pantheism’s a virus—science plus mysticism equals garbage (see IEP).
Kathy writes: “Atheism flopped—reason doesn’t back spontaneous life or human goodness. Christianity’s Trinity and sexism? Nope. Deism fits—God without dogma.” Brian pushes “pandeism”—God becomes the universe—citing Heraclitus to Spinoza. I say: keep it simple. Deism’s transcendent God skips mysticism (see English Rationalism). Pantheism’s a Greek mess—Deism’s clean reason.
Pantheism’s eco-spiritualism—often New Age or socialist—devalues humans to bacteria, killing millions by blocking tech like pesticides (see Leftism). Deism lifts humans as God’s peak, using nature rationally, not worshipping it. Pantheism’s atheism in disguise; Deism’s reason with a Creator (see Origins).
Pantheism Exposition: Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind; Hiriyanna, Indian Philosophy; Plotinus, Enneads (here); Radhakrishnan, Hindu View; Spinoza, Ethics; Watts, Behold the Spirit.
Evaluation: Flint, Anti-theistic Theories (ch. 9-10); Hodge, Systematic Theology (Vol. I); Hunt, Pantheism and Christianity; Owen, Concepts of Deity (ch. 2-3); Zaehner, Mysticism.
